Family Taboo Stories

stories

(story) narrative: a message that tells the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events; presented in writing or drama or cinema or as a radio or television program; “his narrative was interesting”; “Disney’s stories entertain adults as well as children”

(story) a piece of fiction that narrates a chain of related events; “he writes stories for the magazines”

A plot or story line

An account of imaginary or real people and events told for entertainment

(story) floor: a structure consisting of a room or set of rooms at a single position along a vertical scale; “what level is the office on?”

A report of an item of news in a newspaper, magazine, or news broadcast

family

The children of a person or couple

A group consisting of parents and children living together in a household

class: a collection of things sharing a common attribute; “there are two classes of detergents”

A group of people related to one another by blood or marriage

a social unit living together; “he moved his family to Virginia”; “It was a good Christian household”; “I waited until the whole house was asleep”; “the teacher asked how many people made up his home”

primary social group; parents and children; “he wanted to have a good job before starting a family”

taboo

declare as sacred and forbidden

A social or religious custom prohibiting or restricting a particular practice or forbidding association with a particular person, place, or thing

a prejudice (especially in Polynesia and other South Pacific islands) that prohibits the use or mention of something because of its sacred nature

forbidden: excluded from use or mention; “forbidden fruit”; “in our house dancing and playing cards were out”; “a taboo subject”

family taboo stories – Taboo (A

Taboo (A Classic Romance)

Too close for comfort…

They had been raised as brother and sister since Cammie Walker lost her family in a deadly car crash. Little did she realize that Grant Kennedy had wanted to be anything but a brother since she took up residence in his heart when she moved into his childhood home.

But when fate intervenes and frees him from years of stolen touches, Cammie must decide if she can forfeit the only family she has left in exchange for a lover who is strictly taboo…

OTHER TITLES by Mallory RushDate With The Devil (A Classic Romance)

ABOUT THE AUTHORMallory Rush, aka Olivia Rupprecht, has had 17 novels published by Bantam, Doubleday, Harlequin Books, and Dorchester Publishing. Her titles have frequented fiction bestseller lists and are translated into many foreign languages. She is the series developer for True Vows, the first reality-based romance line from HCI Books.

UNHCR News Story: 16 Days of Activism: The forgotten victims of conflict in the Congo

A group of displaced women making handicrafts in eastern Congo. Displaced females are at risk of sexual violence in the region.
UNHCR/D.Nthengwe

16 Days of Activism: The forgotten victims of conflict in the Congo

GOMA, Democratic Republic of the Congo, November 26 (UNHCR) – Twenty-eight-year-old widow Kahindo is lucky to be alive after being attacked and abused by armed men while fleeing her village in the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), a country with one of the highest rates of rape in the world.

The young woman and her six children ran into a group of men not far from the village in eastern DRC’s volatile North Kivu province. "My reaction was a sigh of relief, thinking we were not going to run anymore," Kahindo recalled. "I was wrong."

She was led away from her children and then "six armed men stripped me naked. They began to rape me one after the other until I went into a coma," an emotional Kahindo told UNHCR near the North Kivu capital, Goma. "They left me for dead."

Today, almost four years later, this forcibly displaced woman sometimes feels that she might as well have died. In between sobs, she told of the terrible price she has paid. "Medical tests showed that I also contracted HIV," she said, adding: "The impact of rape is not just. The stigma that I face is not just, either."

The widow believes, "I was raped as a punishment for what I am. Those men wanted to degrade me and insult my family, dignity, my culture and everything I stand for."

Her story is appalling, but by no means isolated. According to UN figures, almost 3,500 females were raped by soldiers, militiamen and civilians during the first six months of this year in eastern DRC, compared to some 4,800 for the whole of 2008. The real figures are believed to be higher because many victims do not come forward. During a visit to North Kivu last August, US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton called the widespread sexual violence against women in the conflict-swept region as "a crime against humanity."

The forcibly displaced are particularly vulnerable in an area where hundreds of thousands are living with host families or in camps run by UNHCR despite the formal end of war in the DRC in 2003. Civilians live under the constant threat of armed men who pillage, rape, burn houses and confiscate food rations.

These women are every much in the mind of UNHCR and its implementing partners in the area such as Women for Women International (WWI) and Search for Common Ground during the 16 Days of Activism to Eliminate Violence Against Women, an annual international campaign that began on Wednesday.

WWI has a project in the DRC to help rape victims restore their shattered lives. "We are making a difference in the lives of rape survivors," said Jose Rugamba, a WWI counsellor based in Goma. "But we cannot say the phenomenon has diminished," she added.

Lena Slachmuijlder, director of Search for Common Ground, said years of war had radicalized attitudes towards women and this was obstructing attempts to combat sexual violence in the DRC. "That is why the scourge of gender-based sexual violence will not reduce, or end, anytime soon."

Most women argue that the failure to jail and punish convicted offenders has led to a culture of impunity and to growing misogyny. "Twenty years is usually the jail term for offenders. But here in Congo, a rapist can be released after paying the equivalent of US$3 to a prison warden," claimed one woman.

Sexual violence can also have a devastating effect on family relationships. Rape survivors are often rejected by family members and their communities, who fail to appreciate the physical and psychological trauma of rape. Changing mindsets will take a long time.

"The best strategy to winning this war is to prevent rape from taking place," said Karl Steinacker, coordinator of UNHCR operations in eastern DRC. That will be a tough task, and one that must tackle immunity and help spread awareness.

Under a UNHCR-sponsored programme, Search for Common Ground is trying to do the latter. The United States-based non-governmental organization has been going through towns and villages in eastern and south-eastern provinces screening films and videos on the issue of sexual and gender-based violence.

Slachmuijlder said the mobile cinema has an impact because the subjects of the films are real people. By allowing the victims of sexual violence to speak out, she said, "We are giving space for interaction and debate on issues people consider taboo, but which should be openly discussed to demystify the issues."

In partnership with other agencies, UNHCR is also assisting rape victims through counselling, medical treatment, micro-finance projects and reintegration activities.

BUNIA, Democratic Republic of the Congo, August 31 (UNHCR) – The new Simbilyabo Bridge that UNHCR built on the Ngezi River here in north-eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC) has paid huge tangible benefits. It’s cut two hours off the walk between towns on opposite sides of the river, made it safer for children to go to school, and allowed farmers and livestock herders to move to market more easily.

But the peace dividends in a part of the world long plagued by war have been even more significant. "We are on better terms with other clans on both sides of the river," says 43-year-old Grodya Londjiringa as she crosses the seven-metre-long stone and wood bridge that now connects former rival ethnic groups along the river in Bunia, capital of Ituri District.

Balancing her merchandise on her head, the petite trader describes the bridge as a symbol of unity and increased social exchange, replacing a rickety old makeshift crossing that could not support any vehicles.

When UNHCR began to facilitate returns of displaced people to this region in November 2007 – after the end of bloody inter-ethnic clashes that began in 1999 – it also began to repair infrastructure like bridges and markets.

"The objective was not just a routine response to increasing social and livelihood needs of the returning populations," says Tane Bamba, head of UNHCR’s office in Bunia. "It was also to strengthen relations and connect host families with those returning to their villages." The hope was that improving living conditions and social interactions among former rivals could prevent future bloodshed.

"Through reviving critical social services," Bamba adds, "former rival clans, that were also cut off from the social amenities of greater Bunia, will connect with each other."

Grodya, a mother of four, has lived through all the violence that has convulsed eastern DRC, largely unnoticed by the outside world. The conflict has ravaged schools, hospitals and roads, and killed the cash economy. Civilians were often on the run, children out of school, women a target of sexual violence.

"I recall the bloody inter-ethnic clashes that started in 1999 on both sides of the Ngezi River. It was a conflict we do not wish to happen again," Grodya says. "If our blood that flowed with the Ngezi failed to unite us in death, we the survivors should."

In addition to the bridge, UNHCR has also financed boats that are connecting people of various tribes – and becoming symbolic bridges in their own right.

"People from different tribes killed each other and never talked again," says Sezikana Tagirabo, 37-year-old woman who was displaced from her own village by war for four years.

"Now that they are obliged to cross the river together in UNHCR boats," she says, "they broke the taboo and talked, because each day they have to share and cross on the same boat."

By David Nthengwe in Bunia, Democratic Republic of the Congo

family taboo stories

Enjoy the second volume of the Big Book of Smut. 25 of today’s top selling authors have come together and submitted their best short stories for your reading pleasure. So, sit back, relax and enjoy our one hundred fifty thousand naughty, fun words.